SpudFiles

This is our first pneumatic cannon me and my father have made. We came up with the design ourselves. It has two separated 4'' PVC chambers that go into two "turbo charged" valves that are electric. If you want to know how to "turbo charge" your valves someone just say so and i will take some pictures of what you need to modify. the two chambers go into a 2'' barrel. we just finished this cannon today so we only have fired it about 20 times but i am guessing the potatoes at 100 psi in both chambers were going about 200 to 250 yards. a potato also at 110 psi in both chambers went through 3 pieces of 1/4'' plywood.


***** The valves are modified!!! we had drilled the the white Teflon piece about twice as big, that the solenoid sits ontop of which allowed a higher volume of air to flow through there in which took away the dampening of the valve allowing it to open alot faster. also the vent hole that is inside the outlet of the valve we sealed and then drilled a hole a hole to outside of the valve as shown in the picture which relieves the pressure from opening the valve. We got this idea from just googling modifying sprinkler valves and it was one called turbo charging valves. We tried opening the valves before we did the modifications and then after we modified them they opened alot faster and was more snappy.


***** I will have my dad write up a very high detailed description of turbo charging the valve. And the dead space at the bottom of the barrel is from my combustion cannon i built before adn used that as the barrel. im thinking that it might slow the projectiles down so i will probably just take it off. What do you guys think?

Nice cannon!

Very powerful looking!

I do have to ask though, What is with that bulb thing in the barrel? looks like just dead space


You should mod the sprinkler valves to get even more power!

Good job! to you and your dad

yes, it seems everyone has first cannons better then my first lol. good job
as sputnick said you should mod the sprinkler valves

Nice cannon, though the dead space is an issue. Not that it matters, great work!

You may have a reason for keeping electronic actuation, but by modding them pneumatically you will get a much quicker opening time. Just make sure you exhaust them through the same valve or use a lever to ensure they are both fired at the same time.

Great

I am thinking that I am not alone when I say that I am curious about your "turbo charging" those sprinklers. I am also gonna be pessimistic and guess that pneumatically actuating those valves would be even more of an improvement.

It looks powerfull and fun to shoot. I should let you know that we here on this forum love to watch videos of objects getting obliterated. hint hint

Very nice looking! However, I too am interested in this "turbo-charging."

EDIT:W00T!!!! 100 posts!!!!

I'm with jook, your turbo charged electro-actuating needs a little more description treatment. Have you tried pneumatic activation? Compared performance?

Also, what's up with the big "accumulator" dead space piece at the barrel breach?

--mistaken double post --

No doubt a nicely made launcher, props I would however suggest taking a look around the forum at piston valve designs, you should have no problem with construction and the performance increase will be a revelation.

Also, some damage pics/videos would be appreciated to illustrate the power

From the chamber to the T piece: great gun. Very clean build.

I think that your turbocharging may have just as much flow as one blowgun (for two sprinklers)
Though I would drop the batteries if I were you.

You should definitely remove the dead space.

A thing you may want to consider: make a pipe go through the bulb. That pipe has holes drilled in it. Then put the bulb at the end of the barrel and you have got a silencer.

Why dual chambers? waste of money, A 2 inch piston valve i believe would over power the two sprinkler valve

jsefcik wrote:Why dual chambers? waste of money, A 2 inch piston valve i believe would over power the two sprinkler valve

OMG stop kicking up dead topics, check the date before you post.

On the other forum, you'd be banned already jsefcik. Same thing for all the other < 100 post members who can't stop from digging up the dead.